In a major embarrassment for the Congress party, roads at the major spots in Muzaffarnagar were virtually empty during party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s roadshow as part of his Kisan Yatra, compelling him to leave the town without making a single address to people.

Roads at even the most chaotic and congested marketplaces were squarely empty as very less people turned up for Rahul’s program, a move to strengthen the prospects of the grand old party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Like earlier roadshows in various cities, Rahul was scheduled to address groups of people in Muzaffarnagar also but a thin crowd compelled the Gandhi scion to leave the city without uttering a single word.

Meanwhile, most of the leaders and members who are directly involved in organising roadshows for Rahul remained tight-lipped over the issue.

Apart from the vehicles in Rahul’s convoy, only a few local Congress workers made it to the roadshow, only to add to the woes of already-hit Congress party.

The traffic, however, was massively hit as the roads were blocked to make way for Rahul’s cavalcade, creating troubles for the office-goers and school-going children. “We have been stopped here for more than 30 minutes now, I need to reach my office for some urgent meeting,” an infuriated Suman Singh, 32, said.

Another woman, Sikha Gupta, said all the “major roads have been blocked. This is not done. These leader come and go but what remains with us is the trouble they give us”.

Rahul had in early September decided to embark on a 2,500 km-long Kisan Yatra, a brainchild of master strategist Prashant Kishore, to — what the party said — “fight for the cause of farmers”.

The yatra is almost in its last phase now. Rahul is expected to wind up Kisan Yatra in Delhi on October 6. It was started from Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria on 5 September.

(Prashant Kumar is senior reporter with Times Now and is tracking Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Yatra from Day 1.)